Can it help in judicial processes to reduce the pendency of cases? The spread of smart technologies like AI across organizations is being driven by the seeking of competitive advantage, but are senior leaders prepared for the impact? The green energy revolution promised by nuclear fusion is now a step closer, thanks to the first successful use of a cutting-edge artificial intelligence system to shape the superheated hydrogen plasmas inside a fusion reactor. How can AI support diversity, equity and inclusion? There is a history of distrust between communities of color and emerging technologies such as AI, particularly in the justice system.

If all goes as planned, this June in Pomona Calif., 25 humanoid robots built by different companies will make their way through an obstacle course meant to resemble a disaster area. Started in 2012, the annual contest is hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's high-tech research unit. DARPA had previously selected eleven companies as finalists. On Thursday, the agency announced the final 14. Gill Pratt, a program manager of the Robotics Challenge, told LiveScience that the participants will have one hour to finish the course, which involvesfirst driving a vehicle to a simulated disaster zone and walking about 30 feet through a field of obstacles. After that the robots must close a valve, do some wiring, cut a hole through a wall, climb stairs, and exit the building, according to the report.

The idea of superintelligent machines may sound like the plot of "The Terminator" or "The Matrix," but many experts say the idea isn't far-fetched. Some even think the singularity -- the point at which artificial intelligence can match, and then overtake, human smarts -- might happen in just 16 years. But nearly every computer scientist will have a different prediction for when and how the singularity will happen. Some believe in a utopian future, in which humans can transcend their physical limitations with the aid of machines. But others think humans will eventually relinquish most of their abilities and gradually become absorbed into artificial intelligence (AI)-based organisms, much like the energy making machinery in our own cells.

A tree familiar to players of the computer game "Minecraft" could also be the tallest tree in the tropics, conservationists have found. Researchers spotted the enormous yellow meranti (Shorea faguetiana), extending 293.6 feet (89.5 meters) above the forest floor, on the northern part of the island of Borneo, where they were conducting reconnaissance flights to assess local biodiversity. Their discovery was described in an announcement published online June 8 by the University of Cambridge. "Yellow meranti" is also one of the sapling "species" available to Minecraft users in the game's "Forestry" modification pack, and it grows into a mahogany tree. But while Minecraft users can spawn an infinite number of trees and plant them in any biome, in the real world, the yellow meranti is threatened by habitat loss and is classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN.)